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I am thinking of setting up a Zentyal[^] server for controlling my home network and acting as a Source Control server.

Has anyone here ever used this?

To be safe, I am first going to try the VMWare virtual image to see if I will like using this, although it already looks quite handy.

Anyone have anything else to say?

On a related note, I am planning on purchasing a couple computers from the Ivy Tech Computer Sale to use as servers. I will have the one Linux server and my current Windows server, with the third one currently being figured. It likely will be Linux, but I might make it Windows. Anyone have any tips on setting up this network system?

I did an approximation to this several years ago. I used Ubuntu as my linux OS. This was a good choice at the time but they have since gone to the dark side. The performance sucks beyond horrible. The 'Unity' interface demands incredible resources on this little system to serve 3D graphics that I don't care about, and remove features that I do care about. The boilerplate stuff tells me that they wanted to follow Microsoft's lead and make Ubuntu a Windows 8 wannabe. I am looking at switching over to linux Mint which is similar to Ubuntu but with Gnome (which was the previous Ubuntu HI before Unity). I am still struggling with it and haven't made the move yet, but it will happen soon...

It's REALLY easy to switch to gnome-2 in Ubuntu... so if the graphics is your only issue with it... that's not really a big deal. Although I have been thinking of using Linux Mint w/ Cinnamon for a while now because it's based on gnome-3 yet it's toned down (elegant/simple).

Naw, they say it is simple; what you can do depends on Ubuntu versions. IIRC 11.04 added the first Unity, and you can manually set it back to Gnome, 11.10 removed some of the Gnome functionality, and 12.04 broke Gnome completely. There is some documentation floating around that shows how to do the 11.04 fix but it was written before 11.10 existed, so it implies that it works 'forever' but in fact it doesn't work beyond that version.

... and its not the graphics interface that I don't want. Doing simple things that used to be sub-second completion are now 10+ seconds.

For example, switching desktops:On Gnome, there were several desktop icons on the lower right hand corner (I think 2? default, expanded by me to 5). To switch desktop, simply click on icon #1, 2, 3, 4 or 5. Command completion typically occurred by the time the Mouse button was released (blink of an eye, certainly much less than a second). With Unity, these don't exist any more. You have to find and click on the icon on the left panel to start the "change desktop" app, which on my system takes more than 10 seconds to activate. It does not properly display which windows are active on the desktop, so you have to 'remember' what is what from memory. Once the app opens, click on the window that you think you want. The app will disappear and it will now take about 3-5 seconds to activate the desktop you selected. If you picked the wrong one, you get to repeat the process. About a minute of screwing around if you make one incorrect guess.

(Updated)P.S. I have a Raspberry Pi (Debian Wheezy) which performs better and does what I want without stupid behavior. For me, Ubuntu going 'Unity' is the kiss of death.

Also, if it matters, the Raspberry Pi linux build is hardware matched and optimized for that specific platform.

I have fully switched to Mint for general use, and using Debian as I always have for server setups.

Mint is pretty simple to use, no matter what DE your using (did have some annoying problems using the XFCE version with Mint 12/13 - settings were not being saved), I'm using Cinnamon which is pretty amazing considering its not even considered "complete" yet. And by that, that only means things like better system tray/widget things but it already has some decent quality ones in it anyway, such as a weather program.

I haven't experienced any of the problems you mentioned getting with Unity (but Unity seems pretty bad quality anyway), so thats got to be a bonus!

Havent had to manually install any drivers for my machines using Mint, another bonus. Try doing that if you was installing plain Debian.

Oh yeah... I've heard good things... I'll probably be trying it out soon... only bad thing I've noticed (if memory serves right) was that the installation seems to be rather large for Linux Mint w/ Cinnamon (as in larger than a CD sized) but I may be remembering that wrong.

installation seems to be rather large for Linux Mint w/ Cinnamon (as in larger than a CD sized) but I may be remembering that wrong.

Yes that is the case, a bit of a pain, but you can always use USB drives to run the installer. And there is also the possibility of remastering the ISO files without things like OpenOffice, Java, and all the other stuff you might not need.

I kind of like Mint with Cinnamon, but had an issue at installation. I've got a GeForce GT 640 and trying to login into Cinammon after install put me right back to login screen with no information whatsoever as to what happened.

Had to login using Gnome (or MATE don't remember) to go to install the proprietary NVidia driver and then be able to login with Cinammon.

I don't mind installing the driver, just let me know what happened when login fails.

Also, trying to tell Linux through NVidia control panel that my primary monitor is the second (task bar on the right monitor, not the left) is quite a challenge! Had to go change an XML file somewhere in my configs to change the primary monitor setting!

Unfortunately Linux still isn't the easiest thing to use. Configuration GUIs still have a long way to go. In my CentOS install my firewall doesn't work right when I run it from the link, it can't change the settings (even though it asks for root password, so it should be able to). You have to start the GUI from a terminal as root for it to work right.

Have you ever tried installing the "live" CD without an internet connection? ...the installer fails with absolutely no warning/error, it just doesn't do anything. Happened to me... there was something wrong the router but how the heck would I know it failed?

What exactly does this "Zentyal" provide that you can't just set-up yourself in Linux? I don't see any benefits to paying for this...

I use the Ubuntu LTS for a SVN/Samba share server... works well... the graphics aren't really an issue because you're not going to be constantly logged on to it (have a window session). You can pretty much do all the administration via SSH. I use Putty on the Windows side to access SSH, Tortoise SVN as a Windows client.